"Something had gone terribly wrong in Hannibal, Missouri. Within the space of six weeks, two killings - a manslaughter and then a murder - had taken place in the town that Mark Twain consecrated in his timeless classics about boyhood, the town that so proudly called itself "America's Home Town." Both were committed by adolescents.".

"Ron Powers felt compelled to revisit Hannibal. He had grown up there, and news of the crimes violated his faith in the town as an American sanctuary. The old "world headquarters of childhood" was not immune to the new national trend of violence by children. His hope was to find some explanation, some solace, some way of squaring these horrific tragedies with what he remembered about "his" Hannibal.".

"Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore illuminates the tortured paradox of childhood in present-day America: romanticized in public rhetoric but brutalized by countless acts of indifference, ignorance, and aggression. While no one can fully explain what makes children kill, Powers places the unthinkable squarely at the heart of America's story."--BOOK JACKET.